Thursday, October 25, 2007

A little background

It might be helpful to share a little bit about my daughter and myself, and how I reached the conclusion that I'm not crazy to try to teach her to ski, and that it might actually be a good activity for us to do this winter.

My daughter's name is Jordan. She was born in September 2005. She has very good balance:



This video was taken at 15 months. She is now 2 years old, has improved motor skills and speed. I have a feeling that she is ready for something new. If I can psych myself up to follow through with it, I could be the one to teach her how to ski.

As for me, I've started hitting the gym to get in shape because I know trekking up and down the bunny slope with a little kid isn't a cakewalk, and I'm sure to get a good workout each time we go. In my younger high school days I actually taught ski lessons to school age kids at the local ski hill (I say "hill" because we live in Eastern Massachusetts where there are no mountains), and I remember that even then, when I was in the best shape of my life, that I would be exhausted after a day of teaching. I know a lot has changed in the sport since my "straight ski" teaching days so I expect that there will be a steep learning curve for both of us.

At this time I think we're both capable of doing this. Although, talk to me about it again in a few months. Hopefully I'll have the same outlook.

Again, wish us luck!

Starting the Endeavor

My mother thinks I'm crazy.

Why on Earth would I even consider teaching a child to ski at age 2? Don't I know that at this prone-to-tantrum age, that it is virtually impossible to get a child to listen to instruction? Don't I know that she will be scarred for life, forever hating the sport which her family loves so much?

I must be crazy.

Hi, my name is Laura and this winter I am planning to teach my 2-year-old daughter how to ski. Ever since she was born, I have been dreaming of introducing her to the only sport at which I excel (I'm pretty much a klutz in all other areas). Last winter I had some grandiose dreams of getting Jordan to slide around the back yard with strap-on plastic skis, but since she had pretty much just started walking only a few months earlier I decided to wait.

Then this year, when the weather started to cool and my brain returned to "countdown to ski season" mode, I started doing some online research to see what others had done with their kids and was disappointed with what I found. Why is there so little information about how to introduce kids to this sport? This lack of information is what inspired me to start this site. There have to be other parents out there like myself that want to teach their younger kids how to ski and might be looking for insight and information about gear, what works and what doesn't, training tools etc. Hopefully, by sharing my successes and pitfalls, I can help someone else get their kid up on sticks and introduce to the sport of skiing. Wish me luck!